Bak mitt er þreytt eftir langan dag í vinnu.

to be

Breakdown of Bak mitt er þreytt eftir langan dag í vinnu.

• dagur: the day
• vinna: the work
• minn: my

Questions & Answers about Bak mitt er þreytt eftir langan dag í vinnu.

Why is it bak mitt and not mitt bak, like in English my back?

In Icelandic, possessive pronouns (my, your, his, etc.) most often come after the noun they modify, not before it.

• bak = back
• mitt = my (for a neuter singular noun)

So:

• bak mitt = literally back my → my back

If you put mitt before the noun (mitt bak), it can sound either emphatic, poetic, or sometimes unnatural, depending on context. For ordinary, neutral speech about body parts, noun + possessive is the regular pattern:

• hönd mín = my hand
• fótur minn = my leg / foot
• augað mitt = my eye

So bak mitt is the normal, everyday way to say my back here.

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Why is it bak and not bakið (with the definite article), like the back?

Icelandic uses the definite form (with -ið, -inn, -in etc.) differently from English. For body parts, when you add a possessive pronoun (mitt, þitt, hans, hennar, etc.), you usually do not also mark the noun as definite.

• bak = (a) back
• bakið = the back
• bak mitt = my back (literally: back my)

English has to say , not , so we feel tempted to make it in Icelandic. But Icelandic thinks of it as already specific because of , so it doesn’t need as well.